Was there a big difference when playing in SSD vs HDD, if anyone tried it and noticed?
My SSD is running out of space for this huge game.
You will have longer load times when entering the game, going into new instances, and possibly little freezes when traversing the open world.
SSDs are pretty cheap to just grab another one, unless you are on a laptop with no open slots.
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Under normal circumstances it only affects the loading time.
Here is a comparison of HDD/AHCI SSD/NVMe SSD loading times:
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I’m not sure in terms of Diablo 4, as I’ve been running the betas on an SSD. But with 3, the inventory as well as vendor screens took up a significantly longer time on a regular HDD. If it’s a similar codebase, that could also be a potential area of slowdown. (Like I said, I’m guessing, and have no clue.)
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I haven’t used a HDD since back in 2008-2009 when I played WoW, I remember what HUGE difference it made to loadingtimes when I got my first SSD. 
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Thats fair, I’m sure there’s other instances too where you’d see a small hangup, maybe loading a group of new mob types on screen, etc.
Generally speaking; HDD will give you a worse experience and you should try to avoid it if at all possible.
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Pretty sure the minimum specs list SSD now. I’d have to google them again… maybe it was just the recommended specs.
Just make space on your SSD, there’s no going back to a HDD now
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I have one of each of those in my PC, actually. 4TB HDD for “storage” (documents, pictures, etc); 1TB SATA SSD for System and most applications … 1TB M.2/PCIE SSD for games.
The difference SHOULD be much higher between a SATA and M.2 SSD … my M.2 is almost seven times as fast as my SATA … it’s possible the other limitation on those load times is how fast the data can be pushed to your Video RAM …?
Edit to add: and I’m pondering adding another m.2 SSD, something bigger, maybe as a Christmas present to myself.
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The 7 times faster speed is under lab conditions and you really only ever get close to it when copying very large files.
You lose a lot of that performance when loading something like a lot of small assets etc.
Even so, I would have expected more than 1 10% to 20% real-world time savings. 40% or so, maybe. 
Overspending on a fast SSD is one of the most common mistakes when building a gaming PC.
The difference is often barely noticeable in practice.
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I played the betas on an hdd, no problems
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Get an M.2 drive Samsung Pro 990 or 980
Not having a M.2 is one of the biggest mistakes. It’s massively noticeable
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Depends a lot on your whole system.
Do you have 64G RAM and a super fast motherboard with current multicore processor?
If yes, then an SSD will only be noticeable when loading the game.
If not, then SSD will likely make a huge difference when teleporting, moving between zones, entering cellars and dungeons, and probably overall performance.
There’s a new tech called Direct Storage which they might be using. I’m not sure of the details yet, but this could elimate loading times. However, it may require an NVMe to work, or at least an SSD.
The only thing a spinning disk is good for is large data storage.
Move your data to your HDD and keep your games on SSD.
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Direct storage was in the beta files…just not turned on yet. Looks like its still being perfected. So hopefully soon.
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I tried it on both. The SSD/M.2 was a far, far, far better experience. Don’t even bother playing it on a HDD it’s painful.
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We don’t even order office PCs any more with old spinning disks
I’m pretty sure DirectStorage requires an NVMe SSD.
Considering that M.2 SSD prices are now equal or even cheaper than SATA SSD prices there really isn’t any point in going with a SATA (and I never said there is).
Though I highly doubt that you could reliably tell the difference between a 7000MB/s and a 3500MB/s SSD while playing D4.
In the end it comes down to the question what you value higher:
2-5 seconds faster loading time, or having ~1TB more storage space for the same price.
I’d argue that most people would go with the 1TB more storage, so recommending a 990 or 980 isn’t really a good advice imo.